Geotechnical sedimentology - its use in underground coal mining

From a geotechnical perspective, bedding is a discontinuity in a rock mass. Sedimentology is concerned, in part, with the origin of bedding. There is much to be gained by a melding of the two disciplines in the underground co al-mining sector. Bedding controls the strength uf rock; units in coal meas ures by defining beams that may or may not span openings. Voussoir beam the ory can be used to explain how massive sandstone/conglomerate units can spa n longwall panels and what thickness of roof beam is required to span a coa l mine roadway. Bedding also controls the way in which stresses are distrib uted about coal mine openings. By utilizing transverse isotropic elastic pr operties. the effect, of bedding can be readily implemented in continuum nu merical codes. Geologists logging core need to discriminate between bedding as a textural element in the rock and bedding as a geotechnical discontinu ity. Geotechnical engineers need to explicitly consider bedding when formul ating their design models. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserv ed.